Nobel Prizes and Glow in the Dark Rabbits

by Allie Wilkinson on October 8, 2008

Congratulations to Osamu Shimomura of the the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachussets; Martin Chalfie of Columbia University; and Roger Tsien of University of California at San Diego for being the 2008 recipients of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry! All three scientists were chosen based on their research into green fluorescent protein (GFP), first observed in crystal jellyfish off the Pacific coast of the United States in 1962.

The contributions that GFP research have made in the scientific community are pivotal. The protein allows scientists to witness what were previously invisible processes, and now with the availability of a n extended color palette thanks to the research of Roger Tsien, multiple processes can be viewed at once. The Nobel Foundation said that GFP can help with researching nerve cell damage during Alzheimer’s disease or watch the spread of cancer cells. Apparently, it also helps eccentric artists such as Eduardo Kac have French scientists genetically engineer a glow-in-the-dark rabbit by injecting GFP into the fertilized egg of an albino rabbit. Whether pure genius or ethically questionable, I’ll let you be the judge…